Cool interviews with Clapton and Green about their Les Paul guitars...
- Thread starter Lewguitar
- Start date
Lewguitar
New member
Gary at least. Don't know about Kirk. I know he owns it now though.
I saw that guitar close up at a guitar show in Dallas.
It was in a glass case but you could walk right up to it and walk around it and check it out front, sides and back from inches away.
It was cool to see.
But boy...it was the most worn looking old Les Paul I've ever seen.
I remember wondering if the fingerboard could even hold the frets in for another fret job.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Cool article. Good info, nice to hear Peter Green comparing the two LPs. And to learn Clapton's woman tone really was the neck pickup - I always felt it might've been the bridge with the tone rolled all the way off. Of course, those early Marshalls were mighty bright amps.
One statement would've been a little out of date even for 1999, I think:
"And today, 1958-1960 Les Paul Standard guitars command extremely high prices, sometimes bringing their owners $50,000 and more."
One statement would've been a little out of date even for 1999, I think:
"And today, 1958-1960 Les Paul Standard guitars command extremely high prices, sometimes bringing their owners $50,000 and more."
beaubrummels
Well-known member
When I bought my Dark Honeyburst Les Paul Standard in 1994, there was a 1959 with the exact same color on the wall selling for $120,000, the price of a single-family house at the time.
voggin
Well-known member
What a flashback! I had that Guitar Player with the Clapton interview when it came out. Always remembered the case lining comment.
Thanks, Lew, for a trip down memory lane.
Interesting to think those guitars were only 5-10 years old when they became classics. I guess it wasn't the age of the wood!
Thanks, Lew, for a trip down memory lane.
Interesting to think those guitars were only 5-10 years old when they became classics. I guess it wasn't the age of the wood!
Lewguitar
New member
Or the aged magnets.
Securb
One of Jerry's Kids
Not sure if the article covered it but...I think it is interesting Clapton bought his Les Paul because of the influence Freddie King had on him. He later realized after playing his Beano for years Freddie King played P90s. He said when he finally played P90s he realized he lucked out with Beano because he preferred the humbuckers.
Lewguitar
New member
Not sure if the article covered it but...I think it is interesting Clapton bought his Les Paul because of the influence Freddie King had on him. He later realized after playing his Beano for years Freddie King played P90s. He said when he finally played P90s he realized he lucked out with Beano because he preferred the humbuckers.
So did Freddie King eventually. He switched to a Gibson ES-345's and then an ES-335 and stuck with that for the remainder of his career
beaubrummels
Well-known member
I've always seen Freddie King performing with an ES-3XX in his hands. I've only seen the P-90 Goldtop in his glamour promo photos.
Lewguitar
New member
I'm no expert on Freddie but I suspect those were 50's or maybe early 60's promo shots for King Records. I have an old 33 rpm album of his on King, with Hideaway on it. I used to perform that tune. I loved Clapton's version too.
Lovegun
Active member
Didn't Clapton have a different Les Paul first than Beano. I can't if it was mentioned in his memoirs when he had the Greece episode. It went something like he took a break from the Bluesbreakers and went to Greece where he performed at some club. Then things went south and he had to leave and leave a Les Paul and some Marshall amp behind.
Lewguitar
New member
I read that book. Clapton. That story does sound familiar.
RE: Freddie King---he used the Goldtop on the early recordings, including some instrumentals and the stuff he did with Smokey Smothers. By the second instrumental album he was using a 345. He probably used the choke position on the Varitone and with the metal fingerpicks he used he got a very trebly tone. This all changed when he got with Shelter and his tone got progressively more distorted and midrangey.
Lewguitar
New member
Your comments about the goldtop are true I think. But Freddie gets a really thin bright sound on I'm Going Down, which is a Shelter record. I liked his sound on Hideaway. The 1961 single.
I guess that's the goldtop?
I bet that's the goldtop, as was prolly the case with the early vocal tunes. The later instrumentals sound like a 345 with Varitone, not that different. The fingerpicks were a West Side Chicago deal and Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, and others were using them. That's a big part of the tone.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Really nice tone on that recording. Has the best of Gibson and some Fender qualities to it. Anyone know what amp he used?
An early P90 goldtop had pretty low wind pickups. Add in metal fingerpicks and it's gonna be pretty bright. I've seen early 60s pix of him with a brown Concert, but who knows what he used in the studio.
